Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by boyan

Need quote for wetwork, wiring, piping, plaster

boyan — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 22:59:55 +0800

Hi guys,

I've a new house and I would like to get the following done:

- cut down walls to enlarge room
- build new side extension
- build brick wall fence at back of house
- wiring for new AC and plug points
- piping for new wet kitchen and bath
- plaster ceiling almost whole house (most bedrooms already come with plaster)
- painting
- awning and grille

And a bunch of other stuff. Basically, the basic things needed so that I can later move on to next phase - furnishing / carpentry (not part of current scope).

(Design & Build) Contractor to handle drawing and submission + approval with local council (MBSA). CIDB certified.

I have prepared the details of what needs to be done, photos of the house, references / plans from developer - PM me and I will give you the link to all that. I'm also open for on-site visit.

After all that, I will need detailed, itemized quotation from prospective contractors to move forward.

Thanks!

Aircond placement vs window and curtains

boyan — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 17:24:55 +0800

Maybe it's me, but having an aircond on top of curtain (and its railing) is a bit ugly.

Sample:

Unfortunately, that's where my aircond point is roughly, and due to prefab wall (and potentially low ceiling height) - it's hard to hack and relocate the point somewhere further (or use cassette AC).

Looking online, I've found a potential solution - a pelmet to house the curtain, and to install the aircond onto. Anyone done anything similar, and have any tips (e.g clearance needed for curtain, material within the plaster ceiling pelmet so that aircond can be installed on etc etc.

Thanks in advance!

Accumulate fire insurance charges interest free?

boyan — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 20:44:59 +0800

Once house (landed, individual title) is VP'd, I get a letter to pay for fire insurance, by insurer appointed by bank.

Letter states that insurer will charge the cost to the bank (the loan account).

I then asked the bank how should I pay - do I bank it in into the loan account?

Surprisingly, here's what I got:
- To pay, one needs to go to branch because banking it in into the loan account might get it treated as loan advance payment instead (this I understand)
- What surprised me was I was told it's not uncommon for one to not pay the cost of annual fire insurance. The bank will consider it as outstanding charges associated to the loan account (but not part of the loan), and it is exempted from interest
- The cost is simply accumulated over the years, borne by the bank (so the insurance is always valid over the years), and when the homeowner settles the loan in the future, he / she must also settle the outstanding fire insurance cost accumulated over the years, interest free!

I'm curious if this is true, since one would think bank would try to charge interest on pretty much anything!

View PBB joint loan in PBB personal account online

boyan — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 22:31:01 +0800

As per the topic - I've a PBB joint loan - and I've set a personal PBB account under my name only to pay against the loan via SI.

Question is - is it possible to show / link to the joint loan in PBe online banking? I'd like to monitor the principal balance and transactions especially when I want to pay more on my own, every month.

On the side - I've visited a bunch of threads too - posts from 2011 till around 2017. I just want to know based on latest experience - for PBB semi flexi, on top of the existing monthly SI - if I manually transfer directly into the loan account via PBe online banking - does it reduce the principal?

Some say it works. Some say you can only do it thru counter. Branch counter? Or any branch?

Hoping that I can just pay extra every month via PBe online banking and it goes into the principal.

Thanks!

Hacking prefab/precast concrete walls

boyan — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 19:12:57 +0800

I realized the wall specifications for my double storey landed house is a combination of RC + brickwork + precast panels. When I look at the progress pictures, it seems like most of the walls on the ground floor are precast panels. This kinda throws off my plans to extend kitchens / bedrooms.

1) How do I know if a prefab/precast concrete wall is load bearing or not?

2) How do contractors deal with hacking them and how would it differ in terms of cost when compared hacking normal brickwall?

Thanks!

Multi-stage renovation questions

boyan — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 22:19:14 +0800

I don't have enough money to go all-out and renovate a new 2-storey corner lot, so I'm thinking of a 2-phase renovation. The first before I move in, and maybe, just maybe once I retire.

The first phase renovation is pretty typical. The goal is to have a wide enough kitchen and 2nd + 3rd bedrooms, which won't be extended anymore after that.
- extend back (4 x 22) both storeys = 176 sqft
- extend side (8 X 11) single storey, but with RC slab roof so that I can build the 2nd floor later in the future = 88 sqft, but perhaps with more expensive RM/sqft since need to build in view of possible 2nd floor

The second phase renovation is pretty much whatever imaginable hahaha, since I am not gonna build it anytime soon, but rough dreamy sketching calls for
- around 1076 sqft for ground floor. This consists of 1 new master bedroom + ensuite bath, guest toilet, study / courtyard area with double volume ceiling, and a spacious patio / terrace. Note that total land is about 4000 sqft.
- around 420 sqft for 1st floor. Basically a store room + study + a long balcony. Technically since the ground floor has double volume, it won't be exactly 420 sqft of flooring.

So in this kind of multi stage renovation, I wonder about a few things e.g

1) What's the average RM/sqft for single story side extension but with RC slab roof?

1) Having that side extension (8 x 11) with RC slab roof meant for an eventual 2nd floor. What's the waterproofing gonna be like? Worried about leaks, especially if who knows - I might not be able to execute the 2nd renovation phase and would be stuck with RC slab roof. That side extension is meant for the wet kitchen btw.

3) When the 2nd floor is built on top, how would new vertical beams be extended from the RC slab?

4) Similarly, there will be a lot of side extensions in the later stage, how would horizontal beams be connected to existing ones?

5) With later side extensions, certain external walls will eventually become internal walls. What kind of treatment needs to be done? Hack away the rough outer layer and re-plaster to a smooth internal wall finish?

6) The double volume ceiling is about 120 sqft. So technically the 420 sqft for 1st floor is about 300 sqft (420 - 120) of actual flooring. Wonder if the non-existent 1st floor flooring is still counted in the costing of RM/sqft?

7) What other things should I look out for? Additional electricity load / piping / 2nd water tank etc etc.

Thanks in advance!

Costing for wiring, aircond and patch-up wetwork

boyan — Sat, 15 Aug 2020 09:42:40 +0800

Hi all,

I've no budget for any major reno for a new house, so will be doing the typical base stuff. I just wanted to confirm the costing I've been seeing around.

Wiring (wire within the walls)
- usually see quotations like RM X for 1 power point. I assume this pricing includes the hacking and laying the wire up to the point, and the installation of that power point? I also assume I'll bear the cost of buying / selecting my own power point e.g Schneider etc. But in short can I say it doesn't include the patch up work that needs to happen to seal the hacking done to the wall when laying the wire?

Aircond (piping within the walls)
- usually see quotations like RM X for the AC itself, RM Y for installation and maybe RM Z for the per foot run of the piping. Again - this doesn't include the patch up work as well right?

So really what I wanted to know is

- for a double storey house (corner)
- where new owners typically add power points here and there
- and install ACs in all bedrooms, family area and living room

For all the patch up work required to reseal the wiring / piping - how much roughly would it cost me? Is this a normal practice to engage wetwork contractor to only seal hacking work done by wiring + AC contractor?

Just want to budget for that. The painting is separately budgeted - will budget for whole house painting as a separate item, which will only happen after the patch up is done.

Thanks!

Water marks on the wall - why and what to do?

boyan — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 21:45:09 +0800

Hi all,

I have bad looking water marks on my living hall wall.

Why? I have a few speculations:

1) My next door neighbor, which is separated by the affected wall, actually has the house on a higher level than mine, because the row of houses sits on a slight slope. Perhaps on the other side of the wall, it is actually facing soil, especially lower portion of the wall. Could it be the soil?

2) I also hacked the same wall to put aircond piping. The water marks are also appearing at roughly the same area where the piping is, for now. Could it be the aircond?

3) The house is really empty though, I have turned on the aircond probably less than 10 times. Initially I did see the marks and decided to scrape and repaint it. That was two months ago and I haven't turned on my aircond since. However after two months the paint degraded anyway as per the two pictures. Could it be that when the wall was hacked, the cement job to patch it up is probably not up to par (allows moisture to easily seep thru), causing the water marks?

How do I fix this? Any ideas?

Specific renovation sequences - validation needed

boyan — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 22:55:50 +0800

As I start renovating, I'm trying to figure out the proper sequence between specific, related renovation works.

1) If I install wood floor finished on site, can I install it without aircond in the rooms? I thought the wood should be 'acclimatized' as per room's real life usage (e.g aircond on every night).
2) Wood floor sanding causes a lot of dust. This means I have to put off wall painting, tinting till later? How about painting of plaster ceiling? Is it affected as well?
3) For plaster ceiling, I'd imagine the sequence would be - put up brackets, wiring, put up plaster, paint, cut holes, install downlights. Correct? Or do we paint as the last step? Not sure that's a good idea especially if downlights are already installed.
4) Should I paint first, or install aircond first? Installing aircond first would be harder to paint later (unless I temporarily uninstall the aircond from the wall to paint, and reinstall).

Advice / thoughts much appreciated

Solid hardwood floor - to rip tiles or lay on top?

boyan — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:32:53 +0800

Question is basically as per topic.

It's a new house, but I don't like tiles. I want to convert the whole of 2nd floor (3 bedrooms + family area) to solid hardwood (no, I don't want laminate flooring).

I see two approaches:

1) Rip off tiles, screed / level the floor again, and then go for batten installation.

2) Floating installation over existing tiles. There's yes / no answers on the Net for this approach since we're talking about solid hardwood here (not engineered!).

The whole of 2nd floor is around 600 sqft.

I'd like to know:

1) From real-life experiences, which option has anyone gone through, and how's the result?
2) How much was spent?
3) On a similar note, what is the rough quotation to remove tiles and relevel floor for that 600 sqft? (3 bedrooms + family area).

Thanks guys!

networking setup for lab... sifus pls advice

boyan — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 11:28:02 +0800

uh... ok... just let me clarify i'm somewhat clueless about networking...

here's the plan... 10 to 15 computers in a lab... to connect them all... i plan to get a 16/24 port switch.... how much would one cost? and what's the difference between managed/unmanaged switch? i would assume it's more about being able to send/query SNMP than others.... or maybe managed means i can manage it through the web?

now... i would also like for them computers to be able to connect to the internet also.. my plan is to get the dsl modem and a cheap router... what router would be good? would a simple dlink router work?

the big question however is actually... how do i set up the router, switch and computers for them to access the net, and also at the same time access each other?

the connection will be computers <> switch <> router <> modem

here's my assumptions... please correct if i'm wrong...

1) router will give out IP addresses to the computers... since it is the one that will have access to internet... so is there a DHCP server inside the router itself? what's NAT versus DHCP?

2) in relation to point 1).. can i instead hardcode the IP address for each computer... and what translation then would happen between the switch and the router... like computer 1 will get 192.168.1.101, computer 2 will get 192.168.1.102 bla bla...

help is appreciated!!!